The Time of Panic
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: The fact that Ritsu is dating Shou suddenly comes out to his entire family.


**The first story is briefly alluded to at one point, but it's not necessary to read the previous fics in order to understand this one. (Links for those who want to read them anyway: s/12145991/1/The-Time-of-Change and s/12410673/1/The-Time-of-Inner-Conflict )**

"Are you sure this is the right film?" Ritsu asked, staring at the box art incredulously. Wondering if he should be concerned about the half-naked woman on the cover.

They were having a movie night while Mom and Dad were out with Shigeo. Something about his report card, celebrating good grades, a privilege that was exclusive to Mob due to Ritsu's having good grades to begin with.

And somehow, they'd agreed on exclusively horror films, with Shou citing some stupid logic like the suspension bridge effect, and wanting to hold Ritsu's hand when he got scared, as his reasons. Ritsu's reasoning was that… maybe holding Shou's hand wasn't such a bad idea, which he didn't admit out loud. And he definitely wouldn't be the one who got scared, which he made sure to inform Shou _clearly_.

After that, there were snacks to buy, then arguments over how long Shou should stay over or whether or not he should just ask his parents if he could spend the night at a friend's house instead. (_"I can't," Ritsu had reminded him sharply, "because I have _school _the next day."_)

"Yeah," Shou replied. "It's pretty good."

Ritsu flipped over the box. Featured prominently on the back was… a picture of another girl in a swimsuit. This one looked like she was trying way too hard to be sexy, cherry red lips parted as she exposed her throat to the knife pressed against her neck. The summary tried to justify it as taking place during summer camp, but there wasn't a single clear image of a campground anywhere on the box. The swim coach was apparently a serial killer, but there wasn't a picture of them on the box either.

"Are you sure this is an actual horror film, and not a slasher flick?"

Shou frowned, then plucked the box out of his hand and replaced it with a new one.

"Does that one look better?"

"Yeah," Ritsu replied after a quick lookover. "Much better. It doesn't look like a psychopath's wet dream and the summary doesn't give away the entire plot."

Shou sighed, pointedly.

Due to his golden boy image, Ritsu didn't exactly know any of "unsavory" titles (that he was willing to admit). Due to Shou's general lack of adult supervision, he seemed to know all of them.

"It wasn't that bad."

"It was."

"You're paranoid," Shou pouted.

He shifted from his position draped over the arm rest, where he'd looked pretty comfortable, to leaning on his palms and knees to be closer to Ritsu from across the couch. At least he could say with certainty that Shou knew _why_ he'd been upset. They surprisingly didn't fight very much.

"You know I only have eyes for you."

"You're embarrassing," Ritsu scowled, pushing him away, pushing away the feelings of confusion and uncertainty and goddamn paranoia that were twisting up his stomach. "I'm going to make popcorn."

Shou brought the movies. Ritsu took care of the snacks. They'd have the place cleaned by 8:00 and Shou would be out the door by 8:30, at least half an hour before Mob and their parents returned. That was how they'd planned it.

And Ritsu definitely wouldn't spend the next four hours until 8:00 finally arrived worrying about Shou's interest in girls, because that was something they had not planned for.

X

He returned from the kitchen, wordlessly, with two bowls, and sat down next to Shou on the couch. Continued berating himself a bit, because wasn't it silly that he worried _more_ about whether or not he was good enough for Shou, instead of less, the more time they spent together? They were physically about as close as two people could be, and Ritsu still had to pray Shou wouldn't notice the way his heart rate picked up when he rested his chin atop that messy, red hair. He was curled around Shou or Shou was curled into him, it didn't matter which, and the feeling should've been perfect, not whatever this was.

Then at some point, Ritsu learned that possibly the best use of psychic powers thus far was the ability to change DVDs without having to get off the couch, and that alone was enough to put the tiniest of smiles on his lips somehow. Shou was warm and they were having a nice date – and rationally, what did Ritsu have to complain about? Shou could be bisexual or gay or straight, with an exclusively gay crush on his best friend, and that wouldn't change the amount he liked Ritsu.

In theory.

Ritsu sighed in exasperation at his brain's unwillingness to cooperate tonight.

"What's the matter?" Shou asked, turning to look at him calmly. "Don't like the movie?"

It was a psychological horror, something Shou had decided Ritsu would appreciate much more than a generic slasher film. Which he'd been right about, with the unfortunate downside that Ritsu hadn't been nearly paying enough attention so far to understand what was going on.

"It's not that, I just – I don't know how to describe it."

Like they were dancing, but they were always out of sync? Like every time Ritsu found a pace that was comfortable, it made Shou anxious, and vice versa? Like neither of them had any idea what they were doing?

"I really like you," Ritsu admitted finally. "You know?"

Shou's eyes widened to such a large degree, his eyebrows threatened to disappear into his hairline. "Wow. Wooo-ooow."

The music in the film turned sharp.

"I, um, I l-like you too."

Then Shou kissed him to the sound of erratic piano playing in the background. Thin-lipped and dry and inexperienced, just like all of their other kisses, to the sound of Ritsu's heart hammering against his ribs, to the sound of a doorknob turning that neither of them heard –

Ritsu's eyes snapped open just as the door swung inward and his mother walked in, her nicest pair of heels clacking like thunder on the wooden floors of their stupidly small house. "We're home early, Ritsu. Your father ate too many clams again, and…" she fell silent, taking in the scene before her. Her expression went flat, which was probably not a good sign.

Ritsu and Shou weren't kissing anymore, but they were kind of close to it before each of them finally registered what happened, and lurched to opposite sides of the couch. Shou had previously had his fists curled into Ritsu's shirt, and not too comfortably at that. Ritsu's hands had been placed somewhat awkwardly on the couch and one of Shou's elbows, not knowing where else to put them, but his face had been close enough to feel Shou's breath on his nose.

Ritsu's mother began to look them up and down like she was searching for something. Maybe boobs. Maybe this situation would somehow make itself better if Ritsu had been caught kissing a girl instead.

Except that was impossible, because:

1) She had seen Shou enough times to know that he was definitely male by now, and

2) Inviting someone over without parental permission was breaking one of their cardinal household rules in the first place.

He had no idea how much trouble kissing said uninvited guest would land him in, but suffice to say he was swimming through deep red jello right now.

"Do you suddenly want to switch places with Eriko?" Shou whispered. Eriko was the name of the movie's main heroine; she was currently fighting for her life to avoid being drowned. "I want to switch places with Eriko."

Ritsu ignored him.

"H-hey, mom… You're h-home early…"

He glanced at the clock. It was barely 7:30.

"As I said," his mother spoke tersely, some of the color returning to her face. "Your father made himself sick at the restaurant. Ritsu, what were you planning on doing tonight?"

Ritsu glanced at Shou for help. His face was about the same color as his hair, which wasn't even inspiring, let alone helpful.

"Nothing!"  
"You waited until we left the house, intended to spend the night home alone with this boy, whom your father and I barely know – "

"You know who Shou is!" Ritsu protested.

"Apparently not well enough!" his mother spat back.

She wasn't normally like this, Ritsu knew. Her lips were pressed together in that same way they always were when Ritsu excused himself from dinner early, or whenever she received a phone call stating Mob had passed out from his anemia again.

"What did you plan on doing while we were gone?"

"Nothing!"

As if Ritsu's anxiety would have let him do anything more than _nothing_. Besides, there was a time and a place for everything, and on his parents' couch, on a night that was supposed to be about Mob, just felt… wrong, somehow.

Since the start of this conversation, Shou's hands had been placed very chastely on his lap, and – apparently Shou had just remembered he could disappear, because Ritsu couldn't see him anymore.

Ritsu couldn't feel his presence anymore either. He was probably long gone.

"Hello, Ritsu."

Mob waddled through the door, with their sick father's arm slung over his shoulder. The weight was clearly a bit too much for him to handle, but he'd probably volunteered for it to avoid burdening their mother. His eyes flittered over the movies on the floor, the two forgotten bowls of popcorn, and he glanced up at their mother's face, somehow oblivious to the look of panic she was wearing.

"Did you have a good date with Shou?" Mob asked innocently, drawing his own conclusions.

"Tell her you regret letting Shou pick that movie," Dimple offered, floating around Mob's shoulder as per usual. "It's way too scary for children your age."

X

A couple of days later, Shou texted him to ask how it had gone. Whether Ritsu was mad at him for abandoning him or not. Ritsu, who believed conversations like this were best held face to face, but would settle for a phone call if he had to, quickly dialed Shou's number and waited only until the second ring for Shou to pick up.

"I am surprisingly not grounded," was his opening statement.

"Oh yeah?"

They hadn't spoken since the night of the incident, so of course this was news to Shou.

"Yeah. I think I'm actually in more trouble for your choice of film than I am for being in a relationship with you."

"That's… good to hear." Shou sounded puzzled, like he couldn't imagine how a DVD with a picture of a terrified girl in her swimwear with a knife pressed against her neck could be worse than the totally normal teenage act of hanging out with your boyfriend. Then again, now that Ritsu's parents thought he was gay, maybe Shou had a right to be confused. "Sorry for abandoning you."

Ritsu sighed. "It's okay. I think I had to talk it out, just me and my parents, anyway. Dimple tried to help – "

"Isn't Dimple the reason we got together in the first place?"

"I hate to admit it," Ritsu grumbled, glancing around the room in case the stupid gas ball was lurking somewhere. Knowing his luck, he was probably hiding just within earshot. "But Dimple has been unexpectedly helpful concerning… us. Y'know. Dating and stuff."

"And stuff," Shou agreed.

He obviously couldn't see it, but Ritsu imagined him nodding along as he said that.

"So I'm guessing it turned out okay?"

"You probably left during the middle of the worst part. At first, my mom was really freaked out. She always had this assumption that, I don't know, I would grow up to be her only normal child, then I came home one day with psychic powers. Now I have a… a boyfriend."

Ritsu still choked on that word sometimes. He watched human dramas all the time. He was a part of the center of the world's most frenetic human drama, a middle school, six days a week. He knew what boyfriends were and what kissing was and what dating was like, but until recently, only from secondhand experience. It would probably take a while before he could define any of those things in a way that applied uniquely to him. That was probably why it all felt so awkward – because it wasn't him yet. It would be, though. Some day.

"And Mob is probably asexual," Ritsu muttered. More of a ramble, really.

"But they don't know that yet," Shou replied. It served double purpose as a gentle prompt, reminding Ritsu that he was supposed to be talking about them. Not the affairs of his older brother.

"Right. So we decided to talk about it the next day, when Dad was around and feeling a little better. I hate being the one who's always placing constrictions on our relationship, so I decided to come clean – I told them I wasn't really sure who else I liked, but I knew that I liked you, and hoped that was good enough for them."

His dad had hidden his emotions a little better than his mother. Mom, despite having had all day to think about this conversation, blinked really rapidly, like she was trying to hold back tears. That was ridiculous though, because Mom was the type of person who bawled at the end of a movie when someone's puppy died, but never when she needed to be strong for her family.

"I'm sorry I over-reacted last night," she'd said. "But Ritsu, I want you to know – your father and I will come to terms with this eventually, but what about the rest of the world?"

"Mom in particular was really worried about what will happen when I decide to get married and stuff," Ritsu sighed again. "You know how as kids we can't fathom the idea of getting married? Well, apparently once you turn twenty or so, it's like a switch flips and suddenly it's all you care about."

Shou laughed. "Yeah, right."

"Dad was a little more okay with it. Mom was still kind of insistent it was just a phase, because she didn't want it to affect me negatively, later in life, I think. But Dad was like… I don't know. He said it shouldn't matter."

Ritsu couldn't remember the exact words, now that he thought about it. Something along the lines of "whether or not Ritsu will feel this way in ten years isn't important, because we'd be ignoring how he feels now". Just having this discussion with his parents was like having a weight lifted off his shoulders, like he could finally breath real air again. Like all the anxiety that had been building up inside him finally had somewhere to go.

"It's because Ritsu didn't feel like he could tell us…" his mother had realized quietly. Looking up from the table, she then spoke louder and continued, "It's our fault for making you feel like you had to hide this."

That had been shocking to hear, to say the least.

"You wouldn't go sneaking around our backs if you didn't feel like you had to, would you, Ritsu?"

"Of course not…"

And thus began a very pressing discussion about what Ritsu was and wasn't allowed to do when he brought his boyfriend over. Doors open, invited guests only, jeez… Some of the stuff they _thought_ he would do was downright embarrassing.

He was thirteen!

Curious, for sure, but they'd barely moved past the handholding stage of their relationship. They'd barely moved _into_ the kissing stage of their relationship, and only chaste kisses at that. The one time Ritsu had kissed his boyfriend all week just so happened to be the one time his parents walked in on them.

The things he said probably hadn't helped. If Ritsu could take them back – but it was too late to worry about that kind of thing now. Unless his ESPer powers could somehow be developed further, which was a possibility, now that he thought about it, given Shou's distinct relationship with Claw. But that only lead to an entirely different sort of dilemma, like whether or not it was morally acceptable to wipe your parents' and older brother's and his pet ghost's memories of the single most embarrassing moment of your life?

Anyway, it hadn't escaped Ritsu's notice that Shou had been silent on the other end of the phone for a while now. It wasn't like Shou, and he decided the subject must have made the other boy uncomfortable. Maybe he didn't have anyone in his life who was willing to listen to and support him, the way Ritsu did.

Maybe it was Ritsu's job to become that person.

** I never intended for this to become a series, but now that I'm on my third fic perhaps I should keep going until the whole world knows Ritsu and Shou are dating. If the quality of writing seems lower than before, it's because I'm tired.**


End file.
